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'Thoughts'
Over 400 years ago, in the unassuming coastal town of New Iberia, Louisiana, a man was strung up by his throat from a large, ancient, southern live oak. Punished for his crimes against God and all of humanity. In the throes of the Civil War the Confederacy was struggling, and the tides were turning against them. The union utilizing new technology like the telegraph and taking advantage of the railroad system, along with an influx of black soldiers were beginning to enforce their will and the Confederate states were afraid and desperate, specifically the soldiers, more specifically a soldier from Athens, Georgia was afraid for his life.
What would happen after the war; would he be hung for treason against the United States? If he wasn't to be hung what would his life be like when he got home, would he even have a life when he got back; he could barely afford the slaves he has back at his farm now, paying for labor would bankrupt him and his family and siring nothing, but girls made taking care of the farm with just his family was near impossible. For weeks on end the Georgia born soldier while waiting for his next assignment was wracked with worry as he waited for the day that the confederate states would surrender, and his life would be over, that was until a tree spoke to him, not with a voice but something else similar to speech but not. None, other than the soldier, could say exactly when and why a tree decided to "speak" to him, but others can say how often he went to the old tree.
Every day for a month during his lunch he would pick up his meager provisions and head to the old, knotted tree that was right off the road towards a nearby plantation and less than half a mile from his encampment. Everyday he would sit down at the base of the trunk, right underneath its hunch, and he would talk about everything to the ancient evergreen. He would bemoan about not having a warm meal, gush about his family back home, and he admitted his fears of the future. He talked a lot about his fears noticing that the old oak seemed to actually enjoy hearing about his feelings unlike his fellow soldiers or his superiors. The man also noticed as he rambled on about himself the tree was getting better, livelier; knots that were formed decades ago started to smooth over forming new layers of bark, dark and healthy, the long branches stretching out over eight feet were straightening, looking less gnarled, and the hunch in its back started to level. Like a proud grandparent hearing stories from their grandchildren the years seemed to fall off the tree and it gained energy from just hearing him and it made him happy. He was ecstatic when he actually heard its voice for the first-time outright crying for joy as the soft and airy voice directly entered his mind and with vigor said, "I think I can help you. I think I can help you end this war and save your farm, no I promise I will". The soldier so overcame with joy didn't even question how a large plant rooted to ground was supposed to suddenly end a war, but he believed it. It wouldn't be too long for the tree to have a chance at fulfilling its promise.
Three days after hearing the voice, the man and the rest of the troops in New Iberia marched to the nearby state of Mississippi to reinforce a Confederate army that was amid battle. Expecting both opposing armies to be exhausted and lacking in provisions and ammunition, the smaller and well stocked Louisiana army planned to merge into the bigger Mississippi army and overwhelm their enemy. Instead, when the soldiers made it to the site of the battle they found a well provisioned, well rested, and large Union army waiting for them with hardly any confederates around. The Confederates proceeded to get slaughtered but despite the loud cries of anguish and pain, the booming of muskets, and the splattering of dirt, mud, blood, and bone, the Georgian couldn't feel despair or sadness from his environment, because the angelic voice of the tree, giving him instructions, cut right through the chaos that was all around. "Bare yourself to the land and wash yourself in the dirt and this battle is yours" the voice instructed, and so he did, as men around fell so did his clothing, as minie balls whizzed by his head, he covered himself in the dirt. After he was bathed head to toe in dirt he kneeled on to the ground as if he was praying, closed his eyes, and sat still, still enough to be easy pickings for someone to blow him away even 300 yards out, but no musket ball came, and as he kneeled the land shook, unnoticeable at first due but it steadily grew more powerful. As it began to shake more and more, the ground became more unstable, and as the ground became more unstable the soldiers from both sides began to stop fighting as their battle became secondary to them finding their balance and avoiding the large gashes that were forming on the land. And then large, pillar sized, roots erupted from the ground rocketing dirt, rock and bodies; the roots were mottled grey and white with pitch black root hair that had to be at least ten feet long, and thick bases that tapered into fine points, perfect for penetrating deep underground and for penetrating through flesh. And that is exactly what the roots began to do. Indiscriminately, the roots shot through the soldiers killing them instantly, neither blue or grey were spared. Both sides, most likely due to the monstrous roots flying around killing everything around it, turned all their focus onto to shooting the sentient tubers, unfortunately for the 19th century soldiers their rifles weren't made to hit high speed moving targets, and even if they did manage to hit the buzzing roots the balls would harmlessly bounce off it. With the losses mounting, soldiers began to make mad dashes away from the field and the murderous tubers, many soldiers were pierced from behind or crushed underneath the weight of the roots but as the battlefield emptied, the roots began to slow in its razing. Then like needles the roots began to knit the land together, alternating between underground and above ground around the deep cuts of the earth, pulling the land back together. It was only after the last piece of land was sewn together and the last root disappeared underground that the nude soldier opened his eyes.
What he opened his eyes to, was the macabre sight of dead bodies pierced through and stuck on roots that had stitched the ground up, as far as he could see. Distraught and terrified on what he has done the man began to unashamedly bawl his eyes and all anyone could do at the time was stare at the naked, dirty soldier cry. After the men had gotten over their shock and fear, a whirlwind of actions took place soon after. The Confederate soldiers fell back to New Iberia with the now distraught and naked man in chains. Upon returning to Louisiana a multitude of accusations was levied against the naked man and due to the nature of his crimes it was unanimously decided by higher ups for his trial to be as expeditious as possible. His trial lasted less than an hour, 10 minutes was dedicated to listing his crimes, 10 to his punishment, and 30 minutes was used to spit vitriol at him.
The very next day the naked soldier now clothed in the barest rags was led to, symbolically, the old southern live oak that was getting stronger and more vibrant was now back to its withered, gnarled state. The prisoner mostly catatonic throughout his imprisonment was overcame with emotion at the sad sight, crying and yelling apologies towards the tree even as they tied the noose around his neck, he continued bawling it wasn't until he was strung up and his eyes bulged, and his breath was stolen, that his voice was quieted… much like the tree's. Over 300 years ago one of the most important events happened. Magic was introduced to the modern world.
The sun was shining, birds were chirping, small animals were chittering, and the wind was rustling leaves of trees in the woods. It was a perfect day to be outside and just enjoy what the world had to offer. Unfortunately, nature's symphony was interrupted by the heartbreaking sounds of a sobbing child. The perfect outdoor day visage was marred by the sight of a distraught and bruised child walking through the woods. The child seemed to be quite young, four or five years old by the look of it and wore a yellow shirt with a large red M in the center of it, a pair of blue-green shorts, and a pair of bulky red sneakers. With a bushel of green hair and freckles dusting his cheeks it wouldn't be crazy to consider the kid to be cute even as his face is fixed in a frown with tears staining it. This little guy is Midoriya Izuku
Izuku was walking back home after a very not fun day hanging with "friends" in the forest. He, Bakugo, and Bakugo's two new friends (more like lackeys), decided to hang out and play in the forest near the park. Something Izuku more than happy to do especially since it gave him a chance to hang out with his increasingly aggressive and dismissive friend. But the joy to hang out with his best friend and maybe make two new ones quickly turned into dread he realized that the three other boys wanted play heroes and villains with Izuku being the civilian that needed saving all the time. When the child expressed his obvious displeasure with basically doing nothing while other three got to play Bakugo, his friend, had a very negative response.
"huh, what do you mean you don't want be the damsel anymore, shitty deku?" Bakugo said while taking a break in some shade after running around so much, " you don't want to play anymore?"
"w-well Kacchan, I didn't s-say that I just want to be the hero once and actually do something for c-change." He meekly responded not even bothering to correct Kacchan on calling him a damsel. Bakugo only scowled at Izuku's response though.
"Well, Deku the reason why you can't play hero is because you can never be a hero. This isn't just playing this is training and quirkless losers like you have no business training to be hero" he said while getting up and poking his finger in Izuku's face, " even those two losers" he jabs his thumb out to the chubby and skinny kids sitting underneath a different tree, "has a better chance than you, so just be happy that your helping me on becoming a hero, alright". With that he got up ready to begin "training" again when he heard aa whining voice.
"But Kacchan"
Katsuki glared at the green haired child so hard that it prompted said child to "eeep" and step back in fear. Usually the fiery blonde would start using his quirk in anger but in moment of cruel clarity that five year shouldn't possess he came up with a better idea.
"You know what Deku, you can be the hero this time."
"For real, you mean that Kacchan" Izuku said with sparkles and hope that was quickly dashed away when he saw the bone chilling grin on the other child's face.
"but the rest of us will be the villains"
"Bu- but that's not going to be fai-"
"Hahhh, I'm giving you a chance to be the hero and you're not going to take it."
"Bu-"
"But nothing you want to be a hero, so be a hero now, you stupid nerd!" he finishes with a yell before shoving Izuku to the ground.
In an odd turn of events that will become synonymous with the duo, those scalding words in a way inspired Izuku. So picking himself off the ground and with a wobbly grin said, "Br-bring it on Kacchan I defeat all three of you villains!". Finishing his statement with a shout the emerald child was filled with confidence.
But as we saw earlier with the tears and the bruises, that confidence didn't do much for him. He was unceremoniously roughed up by the villain team for the next 16 minutes until they left him behind to go deeper in the forest. Which bring us to the current situation of him sobbing as he walked home because he lost his friend and friend's lackeys.
While walking back on the well-treaded dirt path to leave the forest, out of the corner of his eye and through the tears he spots something that will change his life even if he or the thing doesn't know it yet. What the thing does know is that a human inexplicably caught and held its attention much like it caught the attention of Izuku. From his perspective Izuku saw a slithery something hidden in the underbrush of a bush off the side of the path. It looked to be colored black and white and if the tears aren't messing with his vision too much he could swear that its staring at him something that before today would of freaked the poor child out especially since the staring thing seemed to be slithery; he's deathly afraid of snakes. But for whatever reason he wasn't scared this time in fact he was curious. So as all young children do when they are curious about something, he attempted to approach it. So as slowly as he could he walked up the creature knelt and in his softest voices said, "hel-lo". Despite the slithery creature's interest and the boy being as non-threating as a bunny with a bubble gun the slithery thing still had a natural aversion to humans, so it did what all scared things do, it ran er crawled away to safety.
That action spurred the little boy to chase after yelling "wait" and "hold on" which to the smaller snake like creature looked and sounded like a huge thing chasing and yelling at it, which only pushed it to crawl faster, which in turn pushed the boy to chase after it faster, which in turn made the creature crawl even faster. It truly was a vicious cycle. And all of this running was truly hell on the boy's little lungs. He's active for his age but even this was getting to be a bit much for him. But he didn't stop or more like he couldn't stop. He had to find out what the thing was. He just has to, and he know that if he doesn't that he will be missing something important. So, he kept chasing but he was fading. And right when felt like he couldn't run any more he ran into one of the most shocking things he has seen in his short life.
He made it to a large clearing with a single large tree that seemed to be ripped from a completely different planet. The clearing was about 55 ft in diameter all the grass was completely black, not dead just black. The tree was the weirdest part though, it was a large oak tree, bark the same black as the grass and had many pink and red cherry blossom petals instead of leaves. The sight by itself was beautiful but it was disconcerting to say least when compared to the green and browns of the forest around. The sight stopped the child dead in his track as the sudden environment change stole his breath and made him momentarily forget what he was chasing. That was until he heard a deep velvety voice that shook the boy out of his awe.
"Whatever got you in a rush, I promise I will let it eat you if it bothers me", the voice stated.
Izuku didn't see the source of the voice in front of him so he assumed he must be around the tree so he walked around till he saw a lithe shirtless man sitting down at the base of the tree reading from a book leaning on his knees and the creature was coiled extremely tightly around the mans throat but he didn't seem to mind.
Upon seeing the two beings Izuku immediately noticed that the man had the same color scheme as the land around him. His skin was luminescent pink all over except for his hands and his bare feet which were black. He had long black roots and vines coming out of his scalp and past his shoulders with pink flowers blooming all over it, simulating hair. All in all, not the strangest person he has seen, living in a society of quirks and mutations easily got him used to strange people. The snake around his throat on the other hand was definitely strange for him; most animals don't have quirks and this certainly seemed like this one was. The little reptile maybe seven inches in length, had white carp scales with black flecks, two knubby antlers atop of its head, and an elongated snout with a whisker on each side of its face.
And that weird feeling Izuku had when he first spotted the little reptilian is now less of a feeling and more like a thrum. And that thrum gets even stronger when he looks at the pink man, slightly painful even.
"Did your parents never tell you that its rude to stare, boy" the pretty man says while not looking up from his book.
"ahh, I'm sorry didn't mean to sir" the child said back while waving his hands.
Izuku's mom did tell him not to stare at people. She also told him not to mess with wild animals, go off the forest path, and not to approach strangers and well he's disobeyed all those other rules what's one more.
"you're still doing it boy"
"ahh, I'm sorry… again I didn't mean to, I mean I did actually, but I didn't mean to be rude, I was just- I mean – I think… that…you"
While the boy was stumbling over his words the pink man finally looked up from his book and fixed the child with a hard black and pink look that stopped the boys mumbling.
"calm yourself boy, introduce yourself, and speak clearly" he said calmly
"yes sir. Um my name is Midoriya Izuku um what's your name mister?"
"I don't have a name, I lost it a long time ago"
"you lost it?"
"Is that not what I said child"
"um yes, sorry." He didn't really understand how someone can lose a name, but he moved past it as to not upset the older man, "Um so what should I call you then mister"
"hmm" the flowery man began," "whatever you want I suppose, you may name me" 'we wont be seeing much of each other anyhow' he thought.
"Really"
"I don't like repeating myself boy"
"ah, right, sorry", the little boy began thinking about a name for the mysterious man when he got it. The man is pink, he has blossoms in his hair, and he;s sitting underneath a tree that has cherry blossoms, the name is so obvious. "I'll call you Sakura" he said proud of himself for the great idea.
"Because I'm pink" pretty man asks in a deadpan voice.
"Because you're pink" he replied back happily until he noticed the deadpan look he was receiving, "unless you don't like that name, I'm sorry if I made a stupid name mister I thou-"
The man could only roll his eyes at the nervous child in front of him, he stood up to his full height of 5'11, effectively shutting the child up before saying, " The name is fine boy and stop saying sorry so much, only weak men do that."
"ah, yes sor-"
"Boy"
"I mean uh, forgive me" he said it like a question hoping it was the right thing to say. It wasn't, but Sakura didn't want to deal with more nervous talking so he ignored it.
"what is that you need boy"
That question reminded the boy why he was there in the first place and he gained an excited glint in his eyes, " I saw your pet snake when I was walking home, and then I followed it here, so I was wondering can pet your snake" he finished pointing at the snake now wrapped around Sakura's arm and looking at the boy.
Sakura's answer was to pluck the creature off him and hold it in the palm of his hand, "this is thing isn't my pet, it's a pest that has rudely decided that it will bother me, ever since it met me."
"Oh"
Sakura thought about something looking at the creature forming a, in his opinion, a fine idea "I have no say in if you can pet him, but" he places the tiny reptile on the ground, "if you ask him you might just be able to." He finished with a smirk.
Izuku understanding what he needed to do he knelt down to the tiny creature and spoke as softly as he could, "hey little guy, um I'm sorry about scaring you earlier, but I just wanted to meet you". The little reptile was shaking and was looking between the human child and its favorite sleeping spot before turning back and slither toward Izuku and flicked out a black forked tongue over the outstretched hand. Izuku waited with bated breath hoping the creature would like him or at least not runaway again. So, he was overjoyed when it decided to go up his hand and wrap around his skinny arm. And with his other hand began rubbing the top of its head eliciting a purr that was surprisingly loud from the creature.
"He likes me" he said standing up and smiling at the pink man.
"That's great little one" Sakura said with a small smile and kneelt down to Izuku's eye, "Now leave and take the pest with you" he deadpanned before leaning back on the tree sitting down and picking his book back up.
"wait, what, but I thought- , I don't , I can't take- I mean-"
"Boy you are doing it again. Stop it before I decide to eat you" he growled out while glaring at the child. Which immediately stopped the child's racing thoughts again. "What are you trying to say?"
Only slightly shaken from Sakura's weird threat, Izuku managed to collect his jumbled thoughts and spoke, "Um, I just wanted to play with the snake not take him from his home. I also don't know how to get home?" 'and what do you mean that you're going to eat me' he thought to himself with his head down and pushing his fingers together slightly jostling the now resting creature on his arm.
"Firstly" pinky started, " stop calling it a snake it's obviously a dragon"
"Huh"
"and I don't want this dragon or you around me anymore so you can take him its better than the alternative. Secondly you shouldn't wander off anywhere if you no sense of direction."
"c-c-can you g-go back to that first point?"
"And thirdly, what I mean when I said I was going to eat you is exactly what I mean.", seeming like he read Izuku's mind, "I'm a magical creature as well and I eat humans like you" he finished with a large menacing smile that showed of his pearly sharp teeth.
"that, that, that…is amazing"
"…huh" was the very intelligent reply Izuku got from him
"this is so cool, I have never saw anything magical let alone two. My parents said I shouldn't be around that kind of stuff but, magic is so cool, they're like quirks and quirks are super cool and mom doesn't mind me being around them. Oh, I have so many questions, why is the dragon so small, where is it's wings, what type of creature are you, how come you can talk but he can't, wait can he talk, what's his name-"
"STOP", he yelled out, putting a hand up as if he was willing the vomit of words to stop. The combination of the moss haired child exuberance, the twinkle in his eyes, his pinchable baby cheeks he, and the excitable babble, the sight was absolutely diabetic to Sakura and he has to put a stop to it. "… did you not hear the part about me eating you?"
"oh yeah I was more focused on the cool parts. Sooo… are you going to eat me?" he said nervously his excitement cooling for.
Sakura gave the boy a once over before sighing, "No child, I won't eat you. To skinny and the little pest seems to like you so."
That brought the young boy's spirits right back up. "Ok. So what his name" he said lifting his arm with the now alert dragon.
"Doesn't have one"
"Can I name him!"
"He's not mine remember"
"Yes, I'm going to name you… Shirokuro, Shiro for short" he said to the little reptile scratching under his chin. The reptile bobbed its head and leaned into the scratching.
"Shirokuro, because he's white and black"
"Because he's black and white" he replied back triumphantly.
Sakura could only sigh again at the boys, lack of creativity, "ok, then. Well you named him, he likes you, and I'm not going to eat you so you can leave now and take dragon with you."
"but I still can't take him mister Sakura, my mom wouldn't let me have a puppy. I pretty sure she won't let me bring a dragon home. I wish I could do I really do, he's just so cool." He said laughing lightly as the little reptile snaked all over his body, turning Izuku all round trying keep up with the dragon. "he seems like he would make a great friend" he said softly.
The pink man could only look at the young duo, before he broke a personal record for sighs in five minutes, and jabbed his thumb out towards the clearing and spoke, "Well…Midoriya" catching the young man attention at hearing his name for the first time from Sakura, " Since you can't take the beast off my hands the least you could do is play with the thing, tucker him out so he doesn't bother me so much tonight"
"So I c-can stay"
"Did I not just-" he started angrily before catching himself and the boy's doe eyes, before sighing again, (just crushing the record) "yes you can stay, now go do child and pet things so I may read in peace.
The boy and the dragon now comfortably nesting in Izuku's poofy hair, looked at one, gave each other big grins (or whatever reptiles do to smile) and Izuku took off for the clearing and began doing the child and pet stuff that Sakura mentioned.
Sakura was almost beginning to regret letting the child stay. Maybe because he's old or because of his lack of interactions with children of any kind but he forgot how loud and messy children can be when they play. It was a constant stream of loud excited whooping and running, and chasing one another and roars. So many attempted roars. 'I understand the dragon but why are you doing it you foolish little human' he thought to himself while rereading the page he was on for the third time.
"Rawwr" the dragon cried while simutaneusly rolling around in the dirt creating a black dust cloud and inspiring his new human friend to follow suit. So now theirs two little dust balls rolling around. 'They sound like kittens.' He thought humorously. 'Dragons do that to clean themselves foolish child, you'll get sick from my dust…Oh shit'.
Putting his book down Sakura put his hand out, palm up, and black wood particle out of nowhere began congealing in to a blobby mass. After it became the size of an apple it stretched out into a sleek three-foot staff. He grabbed the staff appraised his handiwork quickly before calling to the child, "BOY" he called cutting through the younglings' fun and getting their attention. "Here" he tossed the staff towards the boy that immediately caught him in the face.
"ouch" Izuku cried rubbing his forehead and picking up the staff.
"Ah, sorry child. You should of been able to catch that though" he said not sounding a bit sorry, " Its getting late child, your mother must be worried by now" he said as he made of show of looking at the fading sun light.
"Oh my gosh! How could I not notice, mom must be crying now. But I still don't know how to get home"
"Stop your worrying boy all you have to do is hold on to the suljan-" he pointed to the sick, "and walk, you will make it back to the park you should be fine from there"
"Ah o- oh Shiro" maybe through instinct or maybe through its limited understanding of human language he understood that playtime with the not so scary but actually really nice boy, is coming to an end and he doesn't want that. So, the little dragon wrapped his little body around the boy's ankle and gave Izuku his best puppy dragon eye look. "Oh Shiro" he gently pulled the creature off, "I'm sorry buddy but I have get back home but hey I promise to come back and play with you" only realizing what after the fact, he rushed to clarify, "I c-can come back right?" he asked the pink man.
Sakura thought about the question for a moment, mulling over the child's unintentional loaded question until he got an answer. "…As long as you have the heart for it, you can come back"
Izuku fixed Sakura with the biggest smile he had all day, nodded his head and he started running home, calling behind him and waving, "Bye Shiro, bye Sakura see you later" and disappeared back into the green of the forest.
The dragon whined at his friends departing and decided to slither up the tree presumably to stew in its sadness. Sakura rolled his eyes at the sight as he went back to his book, now able to get past the page he was stuck on with no distractions. He turned the page and stopped when he saw the title of the new chapter, "The boy and his Master, hm, you think you're hilarious don't you, Clotho".
(Notes): Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Hope it doesn't feel like I rushed the ending. This chapter ended up coming out longer than I thought but the next few chapters that come out should be more digestible. And the next chapter should come out in two weeks' time. And I always appreciate criticisms even if you just want to say, "This story sucked sweaty cheeks" I will still appreciate that. Have a good one ya'll.